Group B: Discussion Summary – Adult Education and Environmental Sustainability. Facilitated by Doug Engh and Brendan Lavery. Week 4 Summary
Q1: Scandrett et al discuss the extensive amount of learning that occurs, formally and informally, when a person joins and is active in a social justice movement. Please explain your understanding as to how this learning experience takes place. You may wish to give a brief example which supports your response.
The learning experience included the conditions and skills for a successful social movement. The emphasis was mainly on Consumer Education and buy-in. Numerous posts advised what the message should look like, how to gain support, attract new people, and using non controlling leadership to guide the process. Themes include: Leadership Skills:
Some of the tools required include creativity, soft skills (ie. building relationships, mediating, negotiating, assertiveness), control of the message, and marketing to get the message out to the wider public. There was an emphasis on inclusiveness, community, and connections to the web of existence in terms of building for success. The leadership and group would need to have an ongoing evaluation of the process to prevent group think in a movement. Personal Skillsand Actions:
There were certain prerequisites that would be present for members who have joined a social movement. They likely have experienced a discomforting life situation resulting in an ‘aha’ moment that would encourage growth. Thus, people who join social movements would be passionate about the cause for action with most people in it for altruistic self interest. They would be more likely to be engaged in the learning process and want to get the most out of the experience. There would definitely be reflection happening as the members would incorporate learning into their world view. Elements of Learning:
The ingredients for baking a learning cake would include a democratic approach while using experimental learning which is individual but also affects the immediate group, and the wider community. It would need to occur in a transformative environment with the participants doing research, a critical analysis of any learned information, and deciding for themselves whether it was useful or not. The participants would then decide what type of methodologies needed to be implemented as a result of the learning.
Learning in a social movement is individual but provides a venue, which can include formal and a lot of informal learning that contributes to whole person learning. This would include cognitive (what was learned) and kinesthetic (what was done) experiences.
Summary of Question #1
Group B: Discussion Summary – Adult Education and Environmental Sustainability.
Facilitated by Doug Engh and Brendan Lavery. Week 4 Summary
Q1: Scandrett et al discuss the extensive amount of learning that occurs, formally and informally, when a person joins and is active in a social justice movement. Please explain your understanding as to how this learning experience takes place. You may wish to give a brief example which supports your response.
The learning experience included the conditions and skills for a successful social movement. The emphasis was mainly on Consumer Education and buy-in. Numerous posts advised what the message should look like, how to gain support, attract new people, and using non controlling leadership to guide the process. Themes include:
Leadership Skills:
Some of the tools required include creativity, soft skills (ie. building relationships, mediating, negotiating, assertiveness), control of the message, and marketing to get the message out to the wider public. There was an emphasis on inclusiveness, community, and connections to the web of existence in terms of building for success. The leadership and group would need to have an ongoing evaluation of the process to prevent group think in a movement.
Personal Skills and Actions:
There were certain prerequisites that would be present for members who have joined a social movement. They likely have experienced a discomforting life situation resulting in an ‘aha’ moment that would encourage growth. Thus, people who join social movements would be passionate about the cause for action with most people in it for altruistic self interest. They would be more likely to be engaged in the learning process and want to get the most out of the experience. There would definitely be reflection happening as the members would incorporate learning into their world view.
Elements of Learning:
The ingredients for baking a learning cake would include a democratic approach while using experimental learning which is individual but also affects the immediate group, and the wider community. It would need to occur in a transformative environment with the participants doing research, a critical analysis of any learned information, and deciding for themselves whether it was useful or not. The participants would then decide what type of methodologies needed to be implemented as a result of the learning.
Learning in a social movement is individual but provides a venue, which can include formal and a lot of informal learning that contributes to whole person learning. This would include cognitive (what was learned) and kinesthetic (what was done) experiences.